243 Saiga Khyber RPK

took it out today and it shot great

I just finished this last night, It started out as a sporter saiga 308 (7.62 X 51mm).
I removed the rear trunnion and installed a side folding bulgarian stock and USA pistol grip. With a G2 trigger group.
Then, converted it to 243 Winchester with a brand new 22 inch stainless steel barrel. (got it off gunbroker, for cheap, and lathed it down to fit)
It has a 5 slot flash hider and bayonet lug , of course.
Prominently displayed next to it is a copy (I built) of a Khyber Pass AK47. (A famouse gun industry villiage in Afghanistan where they build guns from scratch, using hand tools)
During the soviet invasion these were a perfered conversion as the 5.45 ammo was harder to get and the stocks are just bad ass.
This style of gun was also featured Prominently in the 1984 Documentary , "Red Dawn", Staring: Patrick Swayze and Charlie Shean

Range Update

It ejects strongly, and like a lot of other saigas, it seems to damage the rim of the soft brass casings about every 5th round, and I think the bolt needs that mod to prevent severe case damage from the (bolt carrier?) denting the shoulder of the casing. I don't know exactly were to mod, anybody know?

It groups nicely, I was getting about 1" inch at 30 yards. But It was me, not the gun, I was wobbling a bit, cause of the shitty range I was at didn't have a good bench.. I'll bet the gun can do better than 2 inches at 100 yards, If I do my part. Mostly it was just function test. And it worked perfectly.

A few of the brass casings had the rim ripped off, I suspect it is normal, as I have seen 223 saigas do the same thing. It ejected fin though, even though the rim got ripped off a few times.

And you can see where the ejector hit the head. again, I have seen this on normal guns, so I'm not concerned.

I doubt my gas port is to big, as it's at 0.065 (1/16"), as opposed to factory 0.055 but that was the closest size I could get here inthe city, as 3/64" would have been to small.

IF I do this again though, I'll try a 3/64 first, just to see I plan on doing a 24" barrel next time, so a 13/64" should work fine.

Anyways, the gun works fine and other than damaged rims and dented shoulders..... it's all good.

I'm really happy, and I'd like to try some light weight loads. The 100 grainers work good, but they don't have the spectacular velocity that was my main reason for doing this conversion. I'd like to find some 65 grainers, and hand load them, jus tto see what it'll do.